troikafandomcom-20200216-history
A-3: Spell information 80
Spell Information Anatomy of a Disaster: or, How and Why Our Spells Fail Us The following is excerpted from Thomas Redwine's treatise "Practical Magick", with permission from the author. All information on Spells is given in addition to the information found in the "Spells" section in Chapter 2. A practicing mage has no greater enemy than over-confidence: there are a thousand-and-one ways that a Spell can come to naught, even when formulated and cast with the utmost precision. And what could be more frustrating, more humiliating, more disappointing and darkly dangerous than a failed Spell? No matter whether we succeed or no, the caster still pays the full cost in Fatigue for any attempt to marshal mystical forces. Weariness is not the only possible consequence of a failed Spell, however; I have seen a fellow mage seriously injured and even killed when a Spell failed to achieve its intended effect! What many novice sorcerers fail to understand (and many more experienced mages forget) is that one's target for any given work of enchantment may possess some unknown property of Resistance--and when met with sufficient Resistance, even the most expert incantations fail. As a general rule, any Spell cast on a living creature is prone to meet with Resistance from either the Constitution or the Will, depending on whether one's magic is directed at the Physical or Cerebral faculties. If the target's luck holds, and the dice roll a value which is equal to or less than that of the Statistic of Resistance, your intended target will be unaffected by your Spell--no matter how perfectly the Spell was cast! It was in the interests of health and safety for my fellow mages, especially those of tender years, that I set about compiling the following notes on the Magic of Arcanum. In the pages to come I have carefully listed every Spell which is known to me, from all the Sixteen Colleges of Magic. In each listing I have tried to give the would-be caster some notion of the Intelligence which will be required to cast the Spell, the minimum Level of Experience necessary to learn its use. When possible, I also name those Statistics of Resistance will provide the caster with the greatest obstacles to success. At times I have indicated the Spells which are easier or more difficult to resist with a plus or minus sign; those numerical values will be applied to the offending Statistic of Resistance before any roll of the dice is made. It should be obvious that the plus symbol works in the target's favor, while the minus sign works in the caster's favor: a Spell resisted by Constitution+10 will be Resisted far more often than one which is resisted by Constitution-5! On the Subject of All-round Magical Resistance If the intended target of a Spell has an innate quality of Magical Resistance, the intrepid mage may find himself in a pretty pickle! This particular form of Resistance acts before any "saving throws" are made, and if successful, the mage will notice one the following four possible results, these depending on the Spell being cast: 1. If the Spell in intended to cause damage, its damage is reduced by the amount of the target's resistance 2. If the Spell has a cost in Fatigue to maintain, that cost is increased by the factor 100/(100-resistance), and cannot be maintained at all on a 100% resistant creature 3. If the Spell does not do damage, but has a "saving throw" instead, the target will enjoy a +1 bonus on the save for each 10% of resistance it possesses (e.g. +1 for resistance 1-10%, +2 for resistance 11-20%, etc. up to +10 for resistance 91-100%) 4. Otherwise, the Spell may simply fail to affect the creature at all, with the chance of this dreadful embarrassment's occurrence being equal to the target's Magic Resistance. The mage should check for these results in the order they are given above. By way of example: a Fireflash which has been thrown at creature with a Magic Resistance of 80% will do only 20% of its normal damage, while a Shield of protection will cost more Fatigue per second to maintain on that creature. A Charm Spell is resisted by the same creature at +8 to its saving throw, while a Spell of Unseen Force has an 80% chance of failure to push the creature even slightly away from the caster. A creature with great Resistance to Magic cannot willfully change this aspect of its being. The consequences of this Resistance can be immeasurably frustrating and even tragic, especially at those times when a mage is unable to get the full effect from a helpful Spell (Heal being the prime example!). The target of such a Spell may resist the effects of magical interference even if those effects are desperately desired and urgently necessary: a mage of my acquaintance was once forced to watch a dear friend bleed to death before his very eyes, while all the White Necromantic Spells at his command were nearly useless. In short: the self-same quality of Magical Resistance which makes it difficult for magical enemies to harm us will make it equally difficult for friendly mages to help us. A Spell and Its Target If a Spell must be cast upon a specific target, the caster must indicate the appropriate target after casting the Spell. He does this by moving a target cursor to the object or tile to be affected and left-clicking (a right-click will cancel the spell). A few Spells, like Divine magic, are cast on objects in the player's inventory, thus serving as exceptions to this rule; there are also a select number of Spells which do not have any specific target whatsoever, such as Sense Hidden. Spells and Vicinity According to some of my notes, many Spells operate only in the immediate vicinity of the caster. For the player's purposes, the caster's "vicinity" is defined as the area visible in the isometric view centered on the caster; as the caster moves, this vicinity changes to include just the area visible in the isometric view. Spell Descriptions The following convenient chart of Spell descriptions has been divided into sixteen horizontal columns, one for each of Arcanum's famous Colleges of Magic. Each College contains five spells of progressive difficulty and power. Conveyance The college of Conveyance holds spells that deal with motion and transportation. Divination The college of Divination concerns itself with the gathering of knowledge through magical means. Elemental (Air) The College of Air holds the spells that manipulate the first elemental material, that of air and wind. Elemental (Earth) The College of Earth holds the spells that manipulate the second elemental material, that of earth and stone. Elemental (Fire) The College of Fire holds the spells that manipulate the third elemental material, that of fire and heat. Elemental (Water) The College of Water holds the spells that manipulate the fourth elemental material, that of water and ice. Force The College of Force contains spells that manipulate and direct pure energy. Mental The Mental College contains spells that influence and control the minds of their targets. Obviously, these spells have no effect on creatures that are mindless, such as zombies and other undead. Meta The Meta College contains spells that affect other spells. Morph The Morph College contains spells that change the substance of the target. Nature The College of Nature contains spells that control plants, animals, and natural forces. Necromantic (Black) The Evil Necromantic College contains spells that negatively affect the life force of a creature. Necromantic (White) The Good Necromantic College contains spells that positively affect the life force of a creature. Phantasm The College of Phantasm contains spells that concern the control of light and illusion. Summoning The College of Summoning contains spells that concern the summoning of creatures of progressive power. Temporal The Temporal College concerns spells that control the flow of time. Arcanum Manual